lilsneezy's AMA - Tattoo shop life

[lilsneezy]

Hey everyone!

A little about me… My husband is a tattoo artist and we own a shop together in PA. We started our business in 2012, but we've both worked in other tattoo shops before (together and separately). We specialize in custom tattoos, which just means we don't have "flash" to choose from. Every design is one of a kind and tailored to fit each of our client's needs. 

I graduated from college in 2013 and have an AS and BS in Business Administration. I'm a huge animal lover - I have a dog and a cat and I've been a vegetarian for over 18 years. 

Feel free to ask me any questions about tattoos, working in a tattoo shop, being married to a tattoo artist, conventions, owning/starting a business, being a vegetarian, etc. and I'll do my best to answer them! 

[diamondsndaisies]

This makes me sad that you are not anywhere near me. I'm in the market for one and my area doesn't have very many decent tattoo artists.

[diamondsndaisies]

Would you rather tattoo in color or black?

[diamondsndaisies]

What is your favorite tattoo to design/tattoo? ie-people, animals, flowers etc.

[lilsneezy]

Mar 11, 2016 15:37:47 GMT -5 diamondsndaisies said:

Would you rather tattoo in color or black?

I don't tattoo but my husband prefers to tattoo in color He specializes in color realism. 

[lgraceh]

What's the craziest tattoo that someone has wanted to get?

[lilsneezy]

Mar 11, 2016 15:37:01 GMT -5 diamondsndaisies said:

This makes me sad that you are not anywhere near me. I'm in the market for one and my area doesn't have very many decent tattoo artists.

Where do you live? (you can PM me if you want). MH knows a lot of artists so I might be able to give you a good recommendation. 

[lgraceh]

What is your favorite tattoo on yourself and your husband? Least favorite? (I'm assuming you both have them!)

[teachermomtobe]

How many tattoos do you have and what was your first? (assuming you have tattoos)

[lilsneezy]

Mar 11, 2016 15:39:03 GMT -5 diamondsndaisies said:

What is your favorite tattoo to design/tattoo? ie-people, animals, flowers etc.

My husband is really into doing color portraits or scenes from popular movies (specifically horror movies). He would tattoo a horror movie character everyday if he could. Unfortunately, it's a pretty niche market so he has a hard time finding people who are into getting tattoos like that.

[notagoddess]

How often do people come in wanting to have an ex's name covered up? Do you see a lot of regret about certain kinds of tattoos, other than names of lovers?

[peaseblossom55]

What do you think of white ink for a tattoo? I'm finally considering making the plunge on getting one.

[lilsneezy]

Mar 11, 2016 15:41:45 GMT -5 lgraceh said:

What's the craziest tattoo that someone has wanted to get?

Nothing super crazy is really standing out to me at the moment. One time this girl got "phat cat" tattooed right on her pubic bone. Another time this guy got a tattoo on his ass to complete his halloween costume (he was going as one of the guys from Varsity Blues and apparently he has their school logo tattooed on his ass in the movie. No luck finding a pic.). A while ago, some guy tried to get MH to tattoo a portrait of Hitler on him but he refused to do it. MH has also been asked to tattoo someone's penis, but he refused that one as well. I don't remember what he wanted to get on it. 

[ohinvrtedworld]

Are there any tattoos that you guys roll your eyes at when people request them? Like super cliche or trendy ones? There are some that I see on ten million Buzzfeed lists and on Pinterest that I'm sick of.

[lilsneezy]

Mar 11, 2016 15:42:51 GMT -5 lgraceh said:

What is your favorite tattoo on yourself and your husband? Least favorite? (I'm assuming you both have them!)

My favorite tattoo on myself... that's a tough one. I'm going to go with my back piece because it means the most to me. PDQ any pics.

SPOILER: Click to show

This was NOT done by MH. It was done by a good friend of mine who works out of MD.
*poof*

My least favorite tattoo on me was my sleeve. It was a bunch of ugly, horrible, badly designed shit (roses, stars, birds, a gypsy/zombie thing, a heart and dagger, etc). I got it when I was 19-20 but I've had laser treatments to lighten it and I'm currently in the process of covering it up with another sleeve (which I love). It's been a long road with this arm but I'm really happy with how it's turning out.

SPOILER: Click to show

This is my arm after laser treatments and before I started covering it up. Don't mind my scrawniness.
*poof*

This is what my part of my lower arm looks like now. Sorry, I don't have pics of the whole thing.
*poof*

My favorite tattoo on MH? He has a pretty badass portrait of the Tall Man from the movie Phantasm. He also has a portrait of Ray from Ghostbusters (the scene with the cigarette hanging off his lip) on his leg. My least favorite tattoo of his is this unfinished Nightmare on Elm Street back piece that he has. It would be a really cool tattoo but it's just poorly done. Thankfully it's not finished so it can still be saved.

[rooskie]

How long did it take to get your sleeve removed? How many treatments would it take to get black removed? Like 1"x4".

[lgraceh]

Mar 11, 2016 16:42:08 GMT -5 lilsneezy said:

Mar 11, 2016 15:42:51 GMT -5 lgraceh said:

What is your favorite tattoo on yourself and your husband? Least favorite? (I'm assuming you both have them!)

My favorite tattoo on myself... that's a tough one. I'm going to go with my back piece because it means the most to me. PDQ any pics.

SPOILER: Click to show

*SNIP*

SPOILER: Click to show

My favorite tattoo on MH? He has a pretty badass portrait of the Tall Man from the movie Phantasm. He also has a portrait of Ray from Ghostbusters (the scene with the cigarette hanging off his lip) on his leg. My least favorite tattoo of his is this unfinished Nightmare on Elm Street back piece that he has. It would be a really cool tattoo but it's just poorly done. Thankfully it's not finished so it can still be saved.

Your back piece is amazing. How long did you sit for it?

Edit: I snipped the pics, I just can't cut out the spoiler. They don't show anything!

[lilsneezy]

Mar 11, 2016 15:44:32 GMT -5 ugaqueencity said:

Has anyone come in to your shop and asked for a really ugly tattoo? Or one you think they'll regret? What was it?

Yeah, it happens quite a bit. Sometimes people have ideas in their head that sound cool but don't necessarily translate into a good tattoo design. When that happens, MH tries to steer them in the right direction. If they have their heart set on something that he disagrees with, he'll either do his best with it or he just won't tattoo it at all. It really depends on the situation. If it's something that's meaningful to them, he'll usually bend. But if it's just a bad design or the client wants something impossibly small, he won't do it. MH is pretty firm on not tattooing something that won't come out right or stand the test of time. 

One example is this kid who wanted to get a tree down his arm and have the roots turn into his baby's hand prints. MH tried to get him to change the design to just a tree, or just the hand prints, but he wouldn't budge. He did the tattoo and I think it looks super weird (like a tree doing a handstand), but that's what the guy wanted and he's really happy with it. 

[lilsneezy]

Mar 11, 2016 15:47:44 GMT -5 teachermomtobe said:

How many tattoos do you have and what was your first? (assuming you have tattoos)

Hmm lets see. It's been awhile since I counted, haha. I think I have 14-15, including my back piece and sleeve. 

My first tattoo is pretty silly. It was the earth with "save the world" around it. It was on the right of my lower back but it's since been covered up. You can still kind of see it in that pic I posted of my back. 

[bex15]

What do you do at the shop? Do you like working with your H?

[ihatepizza]

Mar 11, 2016 15:42:01 GMT -5 lilsneezy said:

Mar 11, 2016 15:37:01 GMT -5 diamondsndaisies said:

This makes me sad that you are not anywhere near me. I'm in the market for one and my area doesn't have very many decent tattoo artists.

Where do you live? (you can PM me if you want). MH knows a lot of artists so I might be able to give you a good recommendation. 

You don't know any artists in Canada / Ontario do you?

[lilsneezy]

Mar 11, 2016 15:50:22 GMT -5 notagoddess said:

How often do people come in wanting to have an ex's name covered up? Do you see a lot of regret about certain kinds of tattoos, other than names of lovers?

People come in all the time wanting to get names covered up. I'd say maybe 2 times a week? I had one person come in who had not one, not two, but THREE different names she needed covered up. I had someone else who wanted to cover up a name with another name. 

Other than names, people regret tattoos they had done at their friends house or by some inexperienced artist. Just because someone owns a tattoo machine, doesn't mean they know what they're doing. If you get tattooed at someone's house or at a "tattoo party" the chances are pretty good that you'll end up with a shitty tattoo or even worse, an infection and/or disease. 

[mill23]

I agree with some of the PPs - I find it so hard to know who is a reputable/talented artist. I've been searching for one for a while but am so afraid of getting it wrong. Do you have any recommendations of how to find a great artist? What to look for/ask about?

[lilsneezy]

Mar 11, 2016 15:53:55 GMT -5 peaseblossom55 said:

What do you think of white ink for a tattoo? I'm finally considering making the plunge on getting one.

It depends on the design. MH usually tries to talk people out of doing white tattoos because he never knows how they're going to heal. White ink works the best on super pale skin because when you're looking at a healed tattoo, you're looking at the ink through your skin. So if you have darker skin then a white tattoo could either fall out completely, or it could turn into a weird grayish shade once it's healed. I've seen white tattoos turn blue, gray, beige, etc once they're healed. Usually when you see a picture of a white tattoo on the internet, it's a fresh tattoo that hasn't peeled yet. Do yourself a favor and google "healed white tattoos" before you get yours done. One good thing about white ink, is that if you're not happy with how it turned out, you can always go over it with black. 

[lilsneezy]

Mar 11, 2016 16:22:04 GMT -5 ohinvrtedworld said:

Are there any tattoos that you guys roll your eyes at when people request them? Like super cliche or trendy ones? There are some that I see on ten million Buzzfeed lists and on Pinterest that I'm sick of.

Yes… this pic pretty much sums it up. No offense to anyone who has any of these tattoos… They're popular for a reason! I actually hate when tattoo artists "make fun" of tattoos like this. I'm a firm believer on not biting the hand that feeds you. 

[mikaela20]

I have a tramp stamp that I got 10 years ago. It sometimes raises under the skin as if the skin that is tatooed is inflamed. It always did this since I got it done.

Do you know what could have caused this? Did they put the ink too deep? Have you seen this on someone else?

[mikaela20]

What is your favorite Vegetarian meal?

When you have company over, what is your most fancy dish to make?

[ohinvrtedworld]

lilsneezy LOL. That's exactly what I was envisioning. No offense to anyone who has bird/dandelion/dream catcher tattoos. They're everywhere!!!

[ohinvrtedworld]

Mar 11, 2016 17:23:59 GMT -5 ihatepizza said:

Mar 11, 2016 15:42:01 GMT -5 lilsneezy said:

Where do you live? (you can PM me if you want). MH knows a lot of artists so I might be able to give you a good recommendation. 

You don't know any artists in Canada / Ontario do you?

Not to hijack... But are you at all near Detroit, or wrong part of Ontario?

[mosdub]

lilsneezy just want to say your tattoos are beautiful